Mahmoud Khalil: US student detained by immigration officials over pro-Palestinian protests released
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Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil has been released after 104 days in immigration detention in the US.
A judge ruled the Columbia University graduate student should be released on Friday.
He has become a symbol of Donald Trump's crackdown on protests on university campuses after being arrested by the US immigration agency ICE on 8 March.
"Whether you are a US citizen, an immigrant or just a person on this land doesn't mean that you are less of a human," he said after being released from detention in Louisiana.
Mr Khalil is a legal US resident and isn't accused of breaking any laws during pro-Palestine protests, where he served as a spokesperson for student activists.
He is expected to head to New York to reunite with his wife, who is a US citizen, and his baby son, who was born while Mr Khalil was in detention.
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"Justice prevailed, but it's very long overdue," he said. "This shouldn't have taken three months."
The Trump administration is seeking to deport Khalil over his role in the protests.
However, Judge Michael Farbiarz said it would be "highly, highly unusual" for the government to continue detaining a legal resident who was unlikely to flee and hadn't been accused of any violence.
During an hour-long hearing conducted by phone, the New Jersey-based judge said the government had "clearly not met" the standards for detention.
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The government is appealing Mr Khalil's release, and an immigration judge, Judge Jamee Comans, has ordered the student to be "removed".
"An immigration judge, not a district judge, has the authority to decide if Mr Khalil should be released or detained," wrote the Department of Homeland Security in a post on X.
The US secretary of state Marco Rubio is pushing for Mr Khalil to be expelled from America because he says his continued presence could harm foreign policy.
The Trump administration argues that noncitizens who take part in pro-Palestinian protests should be deported, as it considers the protests to be antisemitic.
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Civil rights groups, such as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), which is suing the administration, argue this conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel in order to silence dissent.
Judge Farbiarz ruled the government can't deport Mr Khalil on the basis that his presence could undermine foreign policy, but it can continue deportation over allegations that he lied on his green card application.
Mr Khalil disputes these allegations.
He had to surrender his passport but will get his green card back and be given official documents permitting limited travel within the country, including New York and Michigan to visit family, New Jersey and Louisiana for court appearances and Washington to lobby Congress.
Judge Farbiarz's decision comes after several other students targeted for their activism have been released from custody, including another former Palestinian student at Columbia, Mohsen Mahdawi; a Tufts University student, Rumeysa Ozturk; and a Georgetown University scholar, Badar Khan Suri.
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The Independent
an hour ago
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Standing beside a recently released Mahmoud Khalil, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned Donald Trump's administration for the 'illegal' persecution of the Columbia University student, who was imprisoned for more than three months in an immigration detention center for his pro-Palestinian activism. The New York congresswoman joined Khalil and his family at Newark Liberty International Airport Saturday for a press conference moments after his return. 'Because Mahmoud Khalil is an advocate for Palestinian human rights, he has been accused, baselessly, of horrific allegations simply because the Trump administration and our overall establishment disagrees with his political speech,' she said. Khalil was stripped of his green card and arrested in front of his then-pregnant wife in their New York City apartment building on March 8. He was then sent to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana, where he was kept for months and forced to miss the birth of his child. On Friday, a federal judge granted his release from ICE detention on bail while legal challenges against his arrest and threat of removal from the country continue in both federal and immigration courts. 'It is wrong, it is illegal, it is a violation of his First Amendment rights, it is an affront to every American and ... we will continue to resist the politicization and the continued political persecution that ICE is engaged in,' Ocasio-Cortez said. 'Everyone agrees that the persecution based on political speech is wrong and is a violation of all of our First Amendment rights, not just Mahmoud's,' she added. Khalil, who is Palestinian, grew up in a refugee camp in Syria. He entered the United States on a student visa in 2022 to pursue a master's degree in public administration and emerged as a face of Columbia demonstrations against Israel's war in Gaza. Trump administration officials have accused Khalil of 'antisemitic activities,' allegations Khalil and his legal team have flatly denied. 'The U.S. government is funding this genocide, and Columbia University is investing in this genocide,' he told reporters at Newark. 'This is what I was protesting, this is what I will continue to protest with every one of you, not only if they threaten me with detention, even if they kill me, I will still speak up for Palestine.' Speaking out for Palestinian rights is 'speech that should actually be celebrated rather than punished, as if this administration wants to do,' Khalil said. Officials concede that Khalil did not commit any crime, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sought to justify Khalil's arrest by invoking a rarely used law claiming that Khalil's presence in the United States undermines foreign policy interests to prevent antisemitism. A judge's order for his release is the latest in a string of high-profile legal losses for the Trump administration following the arrests of international scholars for their pro-Palestinian activism. Their arrests sparked widespread outrage against the administration's apparent attempts to crush campus dissent, while Rubio has said he 'proudly' revoked hundreds of student visas over campus activism. The Trump administration 'knows they are waging a losing legal battle' against pro-Palestine students, and are 'violating the law' to build a campaign against them, Ocasio-Cortez said. Lawyers for the Trump administration appealed the order for his release on Friday night. A spokesperson for Homeland Security called the order 'yet another example of how out-of-control members of the judicial branch are undermining national security.'
